1955 Chevrolet Truck - The Perfect Storm

What's the perfect oxymoron to describe the extent we go through to build the almost perfect truck? A fine mess, painless torture, reckless caution, and my personal favorite, calculated risk. Let's face it, nothing goes exactly as planned. So can we agree to disagree?

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The title says everything about this '55 Chevy. As you read on Kevin Wilsey was not the best welder, but his vision of the end result kept him from ultimately failing. Kevin's new classic is not another quick fix; it's his newfound lifestyle. Like most fathers Kevin wanted to spend some time with his 14-year-old son and build him a truck. When his son turned 16 all he wanted to do was drive the truck. That's when Kevin realized it was not his son's passion but his, so he asked his son to keep a lookout for a truck like his '56 Chevy. "Careful what you ask for, within two days my son had me working a deal on the '55 big-window," Kevin says. "First things first, it is going to get torn apart and given a new life. What I didn't know is it was going to give me a new life." Kevin was already an avid reader of Classic Trucks and with a little research from our list of vendors he was well on his way.

The assembly began with a Heidts Mustang IFS kit, Unisteer power steering, and No Limit's Fatbar four-bar rear suspension. The frame was then sandblasted and ready for the suspension parts to be welded. "I set up the front and rear suspension so I could tack in the necessary brackets," Kevin says. "Not being a welder and having next to zero experience in welding, I felt it was best to have someone ensure I wouldn't be letting parts fly off during takeoff." That turned out to be a good choice, because while he was at the local hot rod shop he was given John Schimmelman's number.

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"It turns out my welding was worse than I thought. John gladly cut the section out and started over," Kevin says. "Can't blame a guy for trying, I guess." Knowing he would be able to get the power to the ground, Kevin chose the engine, transmission, and rearend. He chose a 385 Fast Burn crate motor and an Inglese Ida induction system with 5-inch chrome stacks. Kevin says it made a big statement in the looks and power department. He also chose a 700-R4 transmission from Performance Chevrolet. Doug Ballance, a longtime drag racer, helped him with that. "I then decided I needed a bulletproof rearend," he says. "Jaws Gear and Axle of Sacramento suggested a Dana 60. Probably a bit much, but hey, I want to drive it not fix it. With the transmission and engine in place, I was feeling pretty good about my build. I had John from Schimm's Rod Shoppe do a house call to how see how I was doing.

"Moving along it was time to call John over to talk about bodywork, fit, and finish. All three of which I knew the outcome but was very uncomfortable on how to get there. We decided to bring the body panels to John piece by piece. I assured John they fit great when I took them off. While John was doing bodywork, I ordered new bedsides and a smooth tailgate from Mark-K. I wanted to have stainless bedstrips with no fastener heads, and really liked the idea of having an interior tailgate latch with no chains or visible latching. I also decided that I wanted to have bed wood that was different. Being in the carpentry trade my whole life I ventured off to the local hardwood supply house, Auburn Hardwoods. The Bolivian Rosewood just reached out and grabbed me. In the rough-cut it's kind of hard to see the true beauty of wood, but it's nothing a little elbow grease won't take care of. I applied 16 coats of Marine Spar varnish, and it finished to the look I wanted to achieve." Kevin goes on to note it takes 24 hours for the varnish to dry. You do the math on how much time he has invested in the wood bed alone.

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At the time Kevin was doing the wood, he sent the frame and suspension parts to Powder Craft for gloss black powdercoating. "I decided to have John reassemble the truck to make sure we had the proper gaps and fit," he says. "It was at that point I figured out I was a little off when I had told John it fit great before. Well, another lesson learned. John likes to set all gaps perfect. While he was assembling the truck, I thought it would be cool to have a double hump on the dash. So I started looking for another dash to cut the hump out of and relocate to the passenger side. One day, while at Jim's Chevrolet Parts, which sells pre-'72 Chevy original and reproduced parts, I asked Jim if I could see one of his restorations in progress. Before I knew it we were in his shop that looked to me like an adult candy store. I saw a '55 Bel Air in his shop, pulled out the tape measure, and wrote down the dash dimensions. The Bel Air dash was not far off from my truck's dash; I asked John to see if he could make it work. John, with no surprise, made it work. Some people can't even tell the second hump is from a car.

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"You have to plan ahead, right? I knew that I wanted to go to a two-tone paintjob, but how to achieve it was the only problem. The bodyline on the Tri-Five is 3 inches higher than the bodyline of the rear fenders. One evening we got out the green masking tape and started playing around. After moving the tape around we came up with following the front fender body line through the door and beginning the drop right before where the door handle used to be, and slightly curving it down 3 inches to the back of the cab.

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"It looked pretty good. We decided to leave the tape in place while the guys continued sanding and shaping. It was about two weeks later when I got a call from John asking me to come down to the shop. Turns out Lorenzo, the owner of Lorenzo's Body and Paint, was down checking out the truck. After a few beers and some guy talk the Friday night before, he looks at John and says, 'Why don't you just lower the whole corner panel to match your imaginary body line?' It didn't take much convincing for me to give the go-ahead. Two days later, it was done. It was getting time to find a painter and an upholsterer. Walter of Powder Craft in Rocklin had a few contacts for both. Camilleri's Paint and Greater Sierra Upholstery were the two I chose to do the work.

"I decided to go with black on the lower portion of the truck and a combination of brown, bronze, and copper on the upper of the truck. The problem was that we just couldn't find the right color. One day while I was in Starbucks getting my morning coffee I noticed they had a metallic bronze color on their instant coffee packets and when I took it outside it shifted colors. I was hooked on the coffee and the color. We finally got the color, and it was a combo of House of Kolors Tangerine and Planet Green over PPG Jet Black. It was fun convincing Paul, the painter, that I really wanted this color."

Kevin and John wanted to do something a little different in the back. Kevin decided he didn't want a roll pan, but there where not many options either on how to finish up the rear. John suggested combining two bumpers molded into one. "So, just like that, John had me going home to get one of the two front bumpers I had and buying another from Jim's Chevrolet," Kevin says. "Two days later, I'm looking at what looked like a big old Caddy bumper resting under the truck. It looked great, and I finished the rear off with Lokar LED taillights." Ron at American Pastimes helped with the Vintage Air, which was for a Bel Air car. With the Bel Air dash in the truck cab, and a few modifications like smoothing the cowl, Kevin says, "We had just enough room to stuff the whole unit with only about 1/2 inch off the bottom being seen. John cut A/C vents in the lower center of the dash. The curve came in when I said to John, 'Why don't we put the A/C vents in the doors like most later-model cars and eliminate having to use aftermarket vents under the dash." The original gas tank was switched out for a rear bed frame-mounted tank by No Limit Engineering that made room for the Premier 10-inch subwoofer.

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This truck has a lot more to be said about it, but we no longer have room to put it all in. "The truck was as new to us, and now I know it was about the people that came to see it. I truly have learned about the real meaning of hot rodding. The cars are just the part that creates everlasting friendships, the meeting of new friends, and the sanctity of family. Thanks for the hard work and late nights," Kevin says.